Local Enterprise Office Galway sponsors Blas Na hEireann

The Local Enterprise Office Galway is to sponsor the categories of Best in Galway and Best in Farmers Market Galway at the Blas Na hEireann Awards in Dingle later this year.

Blas na hEireann - The Irish Food Awards, now in its seventh year - was founded to create a benchmark for quality Irish produce, and it rewards and recognises the driven, passionate, and talented producers that make it.

Head of enterprise at the Local Enterprise Office, Breda Fox, said; “We are committed to supporting local food producers and this is another step in our active efforts working with the food industry in Galway city and county.”

Artie Clifford, chairman of Blas na hEireann, The Irish Food Awards, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Galway Local Enterprise Office Galway has joined forces with us to recognise and reward the best producers in Galway at this year's Blas na hEireann - Irish Food Awards. It is indicative of their huge support for local produce and the assistance they are prepared to offer to help producers to find new markets and customers for their products. This year's Blas Awards are now open for entries and we would encourage all quality Galway producers to follow in the footsteps of previous Blas winnersbyvisiting www.irishfoodawards.com ”

Blas na hEireann 2014 is now open for entry at www.irishfoodawards.com and as always the judges will be searching for the very best of food and drink produced on the island of Ireland. All Irish producers, north and south, are invited to submit products that are commercially available to the public. June 17 is the final closing date for entry.

The Local Enterprise Office is also recruiting for a new training programme, ‘Food Academy Start’, aimed at supporting and nurturing start-up food producers. Bord Bia, SuperValu, and the previous Enterprise Boards collaborated to develop this initiative to provide a consistent level of food processing and marketing knowledge to new and early-stage food business owners. For more information on applying for the programme please call (091 ) 565 269 or email [email protected].